Family Matters
by gypsysue
Summary: Happy Birthday Beth. This is a birthday fic for ejsantry. Edward and Jasper are happily married and raising their son Jake. After an incident at kindergarden, Jake becomes withdrawn. Rated M Just in case I write more for Nae. :D
1. Chapter 1

**Happy Birthday Beth, and many more to come. Gypsysue**

**Disclaimer: Ms Meyers owns Twilight and all its characters.**

**Big thanks to VanPireNZ for going over this for me.**

**Family Matters**

I was woken abruptly by a kick in the ribs by a very small foot. With a sigh I rolled over on to my side to look down at the little rascal that had been playing football with my ribs for the last two nights.

Jake hadn't been sleeping well after an incident at kindergarden. We were still trying to get to the bottom of it, but Jasper said to give it time. He would come around and open up when he felt ready, but I wasn't so sure. He would wake up screaming in the night and end up in bed with us. Not that I minded him being in bed with us, but that my ribs where having trouble with the whole concept.

Brushing the hair out of Jake's eyes, I leaned over and kissed his forehead to try and soothe the nightmare away; he had been lashing out quite a bit, managing to wake Jasper in the process. "Edward, is everything alright baby?" Jasper asked, his eyes full of sleep and worry.

"Jake's just having another nightmare, love. We really have to do something about this. His teacher is at a loss as to what's going on too," I whispered, trying not to wake our son.

"I've been thinking about that too babe. I was wondering what you would think about enrolling him in a karate class. I think it could really help boost his confidence and help him with whatever it is he is going through," Jasper said, moving to a sitting position and reaching out to caress my cheek. I sighed softly at the contact and nodded.

"At this point, I would try anything love." Looking down at our sleeping boy, I sighed again. The worry you feel for your child can compare to nothing else on this earth. I lived and breathed for him, as did Jasper. His pain was our pain, but he refused to tell us what had him so upset.

Jacob was six months old when he came into our lives. Jasper and I had been married for three years; we were twenty - three years old, having been married at twenty and dating since we were fifteen. When something is right, you just know and it was love at first sight for us.

Jake's mother was a friend of my little sister Alice, who was fourteen when they met. They were best friends from school and did everything together, but one night everything changed for the both of them. There was a party on the reservation that night, Alice and Bella were excited to be going and since Bella's dad was friends with Billy and Harry, who would be supervising the celebration, it was expected to be safe for them. What was meant to be a night of innocent fun, turned into a nightmare for Bella. The result was Jake.

Her father tried to help her as much as he could, but in the end it was my mother, Esme, who was adviser and friend for them both. Alice had been lucky; she had walked away with a minor head injury, Bella was not so much. We adopted Jake after Bella realised that she couldn't look at him without flashbacks. She was adamant that he be with loving parents and we were more than happy to step up. It wasn't exactly how we envisioned having a child, but we fell in love with the little guy the moment we met him.

Four years later and we couldn't be happier to call him ours, even with his current dilemma.

Jasper's voice brought me out of my musings. "I will enroll him in classes tomorrow, they have them down at the youth centre. Garrett runs them." He smiled at me as his eyes started to droop.

"Go back to sleep love, we will talk about it more in the morning. Well, at a reasonable hour in the morning." I glanced at the clock; it was only three. Jasper was alseep again before I even finished the sentence, and the room was filled with the chorus of his and Jake's soft snores.

Jasper had Jake enrolled in the Saturday morning classes, and since today was Friday, I needed to get Jake to kindergarden and then go pick up his uniform for tomorrow. Rushing around to get breakfast, pack Jake's lunch, get coffee into my system and then head off to work myself, had me in a bit of a tail spin. I had not slept well last night, nor had I for the last few nights. I knew that karate would be a good thing for Jake, but we really needed to get to the bottom of what the real issue was.

Miss Hale was an excellent teacher and so great with the kids. She was a little abrupt with the parents though. It was like watching two seperate people when you would talk to her alone verses what she was like with the children. She was doing her best to get to the bottom of what was going on and we appreciated that greatly.

Miss Hale approached me as I made my way over to Jake's cubby, putting his bag in his assigned slot.

"Good morning, Mr. Cullen, if I could speak to you for a moment in private." Her face was stony, and to be honest, I was a little afraid.

"Certainly. Jake, why don't you go play and I will come and say good bye before I leave."

"Okay, Daddy." Jake's voice was somber as he shuffled away and sat down in front of the play dough.

"Mr Cullen..."

"Please, call me Edward."

"Okay, Edward. I had a phone call from one of the other parents last night. It seems her son, Mike and his best friend, Tyler, have been teasing Jake about you and your husband." Her face screwed up slightly and I wasn't quite sure why, which made me rather uncomfortable. "Mrs. Newton heard the boys talking about it in Mike's room after school. Apparently, they were using words that only could have come from an adult. Words I will not repeat as I find them very distasteful." And there we had what caused her to make that face.

I could only imagine what the words were and I had no doubt they came from Tyler's father. Mr. Crowley was one of the most bigoted men I had ever had the displeasure of meeting. He was also the reason that Jasper no longer did pick-ups for Jake. I insisted on it after he almost came to blows with Mr. Crowley over his intolerance and the filth that spewed from his mouth.

"I have asked both sets of parents to come in after school for a meeting and I would like you and Mr. Cullen to be there," Miss Hale added.

"Sure, we will both be here. See you at three, Miss Hale." I shook her hand and made my way over to Jake, who was sitting with Mike Newton. They were laughing and playing together nicely and I wonder just exactly what Mrs. Newton had said to her son to forge this reaction.

I stayed back a little and listened in on their conversation. "It must be cool to have two dads," Mike was saying. "You have two people to play ball with and take you cool places, mommies are boring when it comes to boys stuff." I couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"My daddies are awesome," Jake said. "Wanna go play on the swings?" And it seems that was that. Kids can be so cruel and yet they could be so endearing.

I made my way over to Jake just as they were getting up to go play outside and he jumped into my arms.

"Daddy!" he yelled as he threw his tiny arms around my neck. I leaned down and breathed in his scent, a warm feeling filling my chest.

"Hello, Mr. Cullen," Mike said, looking intently at his feet as he shuffled them back and forth.

"Hello Mike, how are you today?" I asked as I place Jake back on the ground. His little head snapped up and he gave me a big grin.

"Very good, thank you, Sir. I'm sorry I was mean to Jake, my mom explained to me last night that some people have a mummy and a daddy, some have two mommies and some have two daddies and that Mr. Crowley is an ignor, ignor, umm,"

"Ignorant?" I offered.

"Yes that. Ignorant jackass." He smiled wider and then asked, "What's an ignorant jackass?" I couldn't contain the laughter that spilled forth as I told him that he should ask his mommy that. He pouted and said she would tell him when he was older. And with that they ran off to play.

I called Jasper at work to explain everything I had found out and told him to meet me at the school at three sharp. He agreed only after a few expletives left his mouth, and grumbled about bringing Emmett. That was all we needed.

My brother Emmett, was beyond overprotective. He would beat up anyone who picked on me when we were growing up, and his tendencies to play protector increased the day we brought Jake home. He was already chomping at the bit to find out what was causing his nephew to be so sad and withdrawn, so I had no doubt that when Jasper called him to let him know, he would show up ready to beat Mr. Crowley's head in.

I groaned as I made my way to the store to pick up things for dinner and to get Jake's Karate uniform. Even though we had gotten to the bottom of this, I still thought it was a good idea to let Jake do this. He was very excited when Jasper told him that he would be starting classes tomorrow.

Three rolled around quickly and I pulled into the car park just in time to see Jasper and Emmett get out of Jasper's car. I groaned out loud and slapped my forehead. This was so not good. When I reached them, I pulled Jasper aside and told him exactly that.

"When I told him what happen, he insisted on coming. I told him it wasn't a good idea and that I didn't have time to go pick him up anyways, but you know your brother. He was waiting outside my office. What was I suppose to do?" Jasper's eyes gave him away. He was happy Em was here, no matter what he was saying.

"Whatever, lets just get this over with, and Em, keep ya mouth shut," I growled out as we made our way to Miss Hale's office.

Mr. and Mrs. Newton were already there, as was Mrs. Crowley; her husband was the only one missing.

Quick introductions where made, where I found out Mr. and Mrs. Newton's names where Bob and Sally, and Mrs. Crowley's first name was Rachel; her husband's name she informed us was Matt.

Sally was the first on her feet followed by Bob. We shook hands as Sally apologized relentlessly for her son's behavior and promised it would never happen again.

"I have been in a mad panic all day. I even contacted my brother to find out just how bad this could be. My brother, David, is gay, happily married and raising a child, with his husband. Which is why this has been such a shock to me." She laughed slightly before she added, "my brother was absolutely no help. He just said, all you can do is apologize and hope they accept it."

Bob nudged her and said,"Honey, you're babbling again. Sorry about that, she tends to ramble when she's nervous." He reached out his hand and shook mine, Jasper's and even Emmett's. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, I just wish it was under different circumstances."

Turns out that the Newtons were lovely people and a pleasure to talk to. Jasper even invited them over for dinner on Saturday night, which they accepted gratefully.

Rachel waited patiently for us to finish talking and then stood, her head bowed slightly and her cheeks tinted pink. She reached out her hand for me and placed her other one over the top of mine when I accepted her handshake. "I am so terribly sorry about all of this, I can not even being to describe how embarrassed I am by my _ex_-husbands behavior." There was a collective gasp at that. I had no idea they were divorce and by the sounds of it, neither did anyone else.

"I'm sorry I had no idea..." She raised her hand to cut me off.

"No one did. Matt wanted to keep it quiet. The thought of his wife, leaving him for another woman stung as you can imagine. Turns out, all of this is my fault." She sighed softly and for the first time I noticed another woman sitting in the corner, slightly hidden from view. "This is my life partner, Maggie. We have been together for two years. You would think Matt would have accepted it by now, but no. I can't apologize enough for his behavior and the horrible things he has been sprouting. I can only imagine what Tyler has been saying, considering the filth that comes out of Matt's mouth every time he comes to the house."

I was completely gobsmacked as were the rest of the people in the room; all but Emmett and Miss Hale, who seemed to be totally oblivious to what was going on as they stared into each others eyes. Just lovely.

We all sat down and discussed what we were going to do about all of this, and by the end of the night, we walked away to four new friends and the possibility of a new family member. Seemed Emmett and Rose, as we were now told to call Miss Hale, hit it off extremely well and planned to see a lot more of each other.

By the time we got home and tucked Jake into bed, I was exhausted, but happy. Matt never did show up to the meeting, but we were assured that Rachel would take care of it. I was glad, especially since I knew if he had shown up, we would be down at the police station bailing Emmett out for assault and battery.

I crawled into bed next to my husband and curled up in his arms, enjoying the feeling of his skin pressed tightly against mine. "You know, it's strange that something so nice could come out of something so nasty," I said before placing a kiss on Jasper's chest.

"Indeed. I'm looking forward to tomorrow night. Especially now that Rose and Emmett will be there," Jasper chuckled.

"How about we forget about all of that and you focus on satisfying your husband?" I didn't have to ask twice as before I knew it, I was naked and enjoying all the benefits of being married to one of the most wonderful men in the world.

I was truly satisfied that night, _twice_.


	2. Bella's Return

Happy Birthday Nae! For all the awesomeness that is you, may you have a wonderful day and get all your heart desires. Love ya lots...Sue

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my laptop, coffee and all the love in my heart!**

**Family Matters: Bella's Return**

"But I don't want to!" Jake exclaimed, his voice rough with emotion. Jasper and I had been trying to prepare him to meet his birth mother. Bella had finally decided she was ready to have some contact with Jacob, but he wasn't having any of it. At aged seven, he was completely content to be our son and even though he adored his grandpa Charlie, he was adamant that he didn't need 'some lady coming into his life mucking it up'.

We knew of course that this wasn't the case and that he was just scared of being rejected yet again by the woman who had given birth to him and given him away. Jake was very complicated when it came to how he expressed his emotions.

Charlie pulled Jake into his arms and rubbed his back soothingly. "It's okay buddy, no one is going to force you." He soothed, but Jake just looked at him sceptically. He was a bright boy, our son, and he knew that he would have to meet her eventually, he also knew that it caused his grandpa a lot of pain every time he refused.

"Well of course y'all are gonna force me, I'm not stupid ya know." He huffed out an exasperated breath and pouted his lips. I had to turn and bury my face in Jasper's neck to hide the chuckle. Jasper and I often debated about where Jake got his dramatic flair. We blamed each other of course, and on occasion his Uncle Emmett. But Alice and Rose where the front runners in the debate. Alice with her flair for pouting and stomping her foot and Rose with her need to be noticed, between all of us he never really stood a chance.

Jasper chuckled quietly, causing Jake to swing around from his grandpa and face him, eyes blazing and lips pulled into a tight line. "You...I...just no, okay. I don't want to!"

The biggest thing about Jake was that his first response to difficult situations was always a firm no, until he thought about it and finally, he would talk to Grandpa Carlisle and Grandma Esme, listening very carefully to their opinion before firmly making his final choice. The choice was only final when he would state, 'and that is my final word' at the end of a sentence. It was a saying he picked up at the age of five from Jasper, and he mimicked him perfectly when he used it.

Like a lot of things he picked up from both of us, the cutest thing was how Jake would all of a sudden have a thick southern accent when he was annoyed or angry, which made it very difficult for Jasper and I to keep a straight face, he was just too damn adorable.

"Dad, are you even listening to me?" Jake was pulling on my arm trying to dislodge my face from Jasper's neck.

"Edward." Jasper said nudging me from my spot before I had a chance to rearrange my features. Jake took one look at me and stomped his foot.

"Great, I'm so glad you find this amusing, dad." I rearranged my face into a serious expression.

"Sorry buddy, but you know how cute you are when you get all pouty, you can't do that when we are having a serious conversation.

Jasper laughed out loud and Jake huffed some more before laughing himself. "Sure, whatever. Pa, can you take me over to gran and pop's today?" Jasper's face took on a shocked expression.

"Umm, sure sweetheart, but I thought you would want to go see grandma and grandda today?"

"Nah, I already know what they want me to do, I wanna talk to gran and pop, since you know, pop was adopted too, so he knows more about this than you all do." Jake rolled his eyes at the look on Jasper's face as it changed from shocked to understanding to pride and jumped into my lap.

"Okay buddy I will call em and let them know you are wanting to visit." Jasper said jumping up and grabbing the phone. Jake laid his head on my shoulder and wrapped his arms around my neck.

"Dad?" I squeezed him to me and kissed his head, there weren't many years left of him cuddling me like this, it was getting few and far between as it was now.

"Yeah, precious?" Jacob pulled his head back and looked at me.

"One, don't call me that, dad, it's embarrassing." I sighed and nodded my head. "Good, and two, now I know you said that I wouldn't have to leave you and pa, but I just wanna make sure. If I do decide to meet this lady, it doesn't mean that I have to go live with her, or do that weekend visit thing that Tyler has to do with his mum and dad, right?"

"Of course not," I said, my face twisted at the thought of anyone taking Jake away. "We adopted you Jake, we have full custody and no one can take you away from us, not without one hell of a fight, that's for sure." I added the second part without thought and Jake jumped down off my lap.

"What do you mean fight? Could she fight to take me away from you?" He started to pace back and forth, another habit he had picked up from Jasper, and throw his hands up in the air, "I'm not leaving you and pa, I don't care what anyone says. I hate this, I hate her and I wish she was dead."

Charlie gasped from across the room, and quickly covered his mouth with his hand, he knew as we all did that Jake was just mad, and that he didn't mean it. Out of the mouths of babes and all that, but it still had to sting.

"I...sorry grandpa." Jake shuffled his feet, staring at the floor intently. "I didn't mean it, I'm just really mad."

"I know buddy, I know." Charlie said and he held his arms open for Jake, who flew into them and buried his face in Charlies neck, a little sob coming from him.

I could understand it, Jake had only had two days to try and get used to the idea, and he wasn't very happy about the fact that the woman who abandoned him now wanted to come see him. Alice had tried to explain as best she could the day before, but Jake wasn't having any of it. He flatly refused to discuss it with her at all, just shook his head and crossed him arms over his chest, defiantly.

Alice had been visiting Jake every time she came home from college, and now she was working at the Forks high as the drama teacher. Bella was also working there as the English teacher. After they had left for college, Alice had only been home on a few occasions, until Bella had decided to start to come home too, she missed her dad and the Cullen's. She never saw Jake when she was home, though, it was only two years ago that both Alice and her had moved home to be closer to everyone. Bella was strong and independent now, having faced her nightmare and moved on from it. Slowly but surely she had been asking about Jake more and more, requesting photos and updates on his life. Now she was ready to meet him, and this is what was causing the problems.

Jake was happy enough to know that Bella was his birth mother, cause it gave him grandpa Charlie, but he had no interest in meeting Bella now. He had asked about her many times growing up and every time he was told that she wasn't ready to meet him. After a while he just stopped asking, Esme had asked him why he had stopped and his response at five was, 'if she doesn't want me, then I don't want her'. He cried for a week after that admission.

It was all so damn messy, especially since we couldn't share with him why exactly Bella had given him up. He was too young to understand. He had asked about his birth father once, and we were able to tell him the truth about that.

The man that attacked Bella, had mysteriously disappeared when Jake was two, his body was found three weeks later. Or what was left of his body. Wolf attack had been listed as the cause of death. Jasper and I had other suspicions but whenever we brought it up Charlie would start fidgeting and change the subject.

So Jake was told that his birth father had passed away.

Three weeks after Jacob had spoken, privately, with Jasper's parents, he walked into the kitchen and announced that he was willing to meet 'the lady' and after talking through things with him, we made the call to Bella.

Jake had decided that he wanted to meet her, but only if he was surrounded by his family. That meant that everyone, Jasper's parents, my parents, Charlie, Alice, Emmett and Rose needed to be there.

Rose and Emmett had been inseparable since the dinner at our place and had married two years ago, with Jake as the ring barer. Rose was currently expecting their first child, and we all couldn't be happier.

Jake was very tense waiting for everyone to arrive. It was a Sunday afternoon and Bella was told to arrive at four, giving everyone else enough time to be there before her. The only person who wouldn't would be Alice who was arriving with Bella.

Jake went between pacing nervously around the house to curling up in either my arms or Jasper's. He really did take after Jasper, with nearly all his mannerisms, and if today wasn't so stressful I would have laughed at his antics, as it was I was barely keeping it together. If it hadn't been for Jasper I would have fallen apart completely.

We both knew that this day would come eventually, and we made a promise that when it did we would support Bella, but now, seven years later, it was extremely difficult for us to have someone come into our home and make a claim on our son. As much as we loved Bella for giving us the gift of Jake, a huge part of both of us just wanted to take him and run away where no one could ever find us. We wanted to save Jake the pain of having to go through this and selfishly we wanted to save ourselves the pain, that one day, Jake may decide he wanted Bella full time.

The door bell rang at exactly four and Jake who had been sitting with Jasper, whispering quietly to each other, jumped and shifted so he was sitting part way on both of our laps, one arm wrapped around my neck, one around Jasper's, in an awkward position, causing Jasper and my heads to be held together.

Charlie got up to get the door, and lead Alice and an uncomfortable looking Bella into the room. Her eyes immediately fell on Jake, who had his face buried between mine and Jasper' necks. He peaked around, twisting his body so he could look at Bella and then quickly buried his head back in its previous position.

Bella walked over to us, sank to her knees and tentatively raised her hand to Jake's back, "Hello Jake, it's a pleasure to meet you," she said. Jake pulled his body away from her touch and grunted out a small noise. Bella sighed softly but didn't move from her spot in front of us. Jasper gave her an encouraging smile, while I whispered into Jake's ear, encouraging him to face her.

After what seemed like hours, but was probably only ten minutes, Jake turned, wedging himself between me and Jasper and looked up into Bella's face, he had tears in his eyes as he spoke. "Hello Bella," he said softly. He gave her a weak smile and relief filled her features and tears fell from her eyes.

"Hello Jacob, it's so nice to meet you." Her voice quavered with emotion as she reached out her hand to him, not touching, just waiting to see if he would take it. Jake looked at both me and Jasper who nodded at him encouragingly and he reached out a shaking hand and placed it into Bella's.

Jake had a look on his face I knew very well, his eyes held a million questions, and I could see his mind going a mile a minute. But what he did next surprised everyone in the room, including us, and Jasper let out a gasp of surprise as Jake flung himself into Bella's arms and sobbed openly. Bella held him tight, rubbing his back soothingly as she let her emotions flow.

They stayed that way for twenty minutes, just holding on to each other before Jake pulled back, dried his eyes and returned to his position between myself and Jasper. He cleared his throat before looking between the two of us and then back to his mother.

We spent the next hour, with Bella asking Jake about school and his favorite hobbies, and Jake answered all her question with enthusiasm, pleased that she wanted to know so much about him and even more pleased that she obviously knew a lot about him anyway.

"Aunty Alice has been telling you about me, hasn't she?" Jake asked after Bella had finished firing off questions and telling him everything she already knew.

"I suppose she has, yes," Bella said, before adding, "she has also been giving me photographs." Bella reached into her bag and pulled out a photo album, the cover had gold letters on the front reading 'Jacob' and Bella handed it to him.

The next hour was spent with the three of us telling Bella about what we were doing on the days each photo was taken.

It was time to get some dinner going, by the time Jake pulled Bella by the hand to take her to his room, he wanted to show her all his toys, his favorite books and where he slept. The rest of us piled into the kitchen, talking about how things were going while we decided what to prepare for dinner.

In the end we decided on Jake's favorite take away and Carlisle and Charlie left to pick it up. My nerves were on a thin thread by the time the food arrived and Bella and Jake were still upstairs. Jasper went up to get them for dinner and was shaking his head as he entered the kitchen to help me with drinks, while everyone else was in the dinning room, setting out plates and dishing up the food.

"I caught the back end of a conversation while I was walking to his room, apparently, Jake is happy to be friends with Bella, and maybe one day he might call her mom, but he is very happy with us and would rather that she not disrupt his life." Jasper laughed quietly as tears filled his eyes, and I hugged him tightly as relief flooded through my system.

"He also said that if she even thought about trying to take him away from us, he would never speak to her again, because even though she was the reason he was alive, we were his parents and he would be very mad if she tried to split us up. He was very adamant about how much he loved us and made it clear that though he might love her one day, he would never love her as much as he loved us. Out of the mouths of babes, hey baby. I always said he was seven going on forty. The boy is way too wise beyond his years." Jasper was smiling into my neck and my body trembled with tears of joy.

It had been one of my biggest fears that Jake would one day want to live with his real mother, and that we were not enough for him. I had never been so glad to have been proven wrong.

Jake came bounding into the kitchen, a smile on his face, "she's not so bad ya know," he said, "but she's got nothing on you two. I love you dad, pa." He ran and threw his arms around our waists, squeezing his little body between us.

Later that night after we had put Jake to bed and read him a bedtime story, Bella had offered but Jake had informed her that it was something he did with his dads only and didn't want that to change ever, we made our way down to find the family sitting around the living room with coffee.

"That went so much better than I expected," said Charlie, a happy smile on his face, as Bella sat beside him, her arm around his waist and head resting on his shoulder.

"Yes, it did," said Jasper, before he turned and kissed my cheek.

"Thank you both," said Bella, "I know this must have been hard on you, and I appreciate all you have done for him. He is beyond happy and healthy, and he is such a smart boy." Bella sighed before continuing, "he was a little worried that I was planning on taking him away from you, and made me promise that I wouldn't." She laughed slightly as a few tears escaped her. "I'm just happy to have the opportunity to have any part in his life he will give me, I've made so many mistakes in my life, but the one thing I did right, about the only thing I did right, was giving Jacob to you two. I couldn't have asked for a better home for him, your son."

We talked well into the night, and it was midnight before Jasper and I finally fell into bed, happy, content and wondering what the future would hold for Jake, our son.


End file.
